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link to original article: http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=477

“The Piano in the Shed,” a film set in the town of Koori, Fukushima Prefecture, and portraying the impact of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, will be screened in London on March 11 and 13. It will be the second overseas location where the movie is shown, following Sydney last November.

The film will be shown at the Japanese Embassy in London on March 11, the fourth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, and at University College London on March 13. Yuto Kitsunai, the film’s producer who hails from the city of Fukushima, will attend the screenings.

The events were made possible through the efforts of Yoshio Mitsuyama, head of the London Shakunage Kai, a liaison group formed by residents in Britain with roots in Fukushima, according to Kitsunai. Mitsuyama, who also leads a network of such liaison groups around the world, helped make the arrangements after being impressed by the film.

“It would be nice if we can send out the message that Fukushima is continuing its steps toward a new future,” Kitsunai said. “We would also like to convey our appreciation for the support given to us at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake.”

The film is a coming-of-age story centering around a senior high school girl who copes with life and its troubles positively by playing the piano. It also depicts how the nuclear disaster has affected the lives of local residents, such as peach farmers hit by harmful rumors of radiation.

Some Koori residents, as well as evacuees from Namie, home to the crippled plant, acted as extras in the film. Its production was cosponsored by Fukushima Minpo Co., publisher of the namesake local daily.

link to original article: http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=476

Highly radioactive rainwater that accumulated on the rooftop of the No. 2 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was found to have leaked into the Pacific Ocean through the complex’s drainage ditch, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Feb. 24. TEPCO discovered the leakage of contaminated water into the ocean no later than in April last year and had been investigating the cause, but did not make the issue public until now.

The drainage runs through the inland side of the complex next to the Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings and into the open sea outside the bay south of the No. 4 reactor. The level of radioactive cesium in rainwater that had accumulated on the rooftop of an entrance for heavy duty trucks and other vehicles transporting large items at the No. 2 reactor building measured 29,400 becquerels per liter, while that of beta ray-emitting substances such as strontium-90 was 52,000 becquerels per liter, according to TEPCO.

At the drainage outlet outside the bay, where no measures have been taken to prevent radioactive substances from being released into the ocean, the level of radioactive cesium measured a high of 1,050 becquerels and that of beta ray-emitting substances measured 1,500 becquerels.

TEPCO said it believes radioactive substances scattered from the nuclear accident had remained on the entrance rooftop and that every time it rained, rainwater mixed with such substances flowed into the ditch via the drainage on the rooftop. “According to test results so far, no major changes in radiation levels have been observed in the ocean outside the bay adjacent to the plant,” TEPCO said.
(Translated by Kyodo News)